I read over a great WSJ article, Politicians Butt In at Bailed-Out GM, which demonstrates the problems with government intervening heavily in the decisions of businesses. A few quotes:
Thomas Geisel, chief executive of New Jersey’s Sun Bancorp Inc., says the bank paid back its federal money in June because of legislation that imposed limits on bankers’ pay, among other areas. “Lawmakers let emotion and ego get in the way of making good business decisions,” he says.
“I was elected to represent the interests of Montana, not General Motors, which is …

Given the current traction government intervention is having in the media and among some groups sentiments (see Regulating Compensation, Administrating Health Care Plans, Sole Originator of Student Loans, etc.) I thought I would share two quotes on government intervention.
My interpretation is that for some reason it is believed that government officials, be it representatives, appointees, or career bureaucrats, are somehow better suited to run things than a private market (think all of our social institutions not just companies). Milton Friedman in the below quote said it well, by asking, …

I wrote in my Article titled, “US Steelmakers Support Green House Gas Legislation” on United Steelworkers supporting GHG legislation and assumed they were doing so to get more favorable treatment from the White House.
In fact the United Steelworkers couldn’t get any trade complaints passed through the Bush administration so their hoping for some traction with Obama (particular since he pledged to increase trade enforcement). They are currently trying to get ‘trade enforcement’ considerations by Obama on imported Chinese tires.
Well Obama ended up signing a 35-percent tariff on imported tires (a …

I was just watching an interview with Milton Friedman and he stated that,

There is a smoke stack on the back of every government program. That is to say that every government programs impose a cost on third parties where the third parties are not receiving compensation.

This came out of the context of discussing when government may need to intervene in the market. Milton Friedman and some other classical liberals (libertarians) think that the only case for government is when it is not feasible for market arrangements to make …